Chicken Dread Vs CitCo, Round Two

On Friday following a confrontation with police and special constables of the Belize City Council, proprietor of the ‘Chicken Dread’ fast food franchise Paul Ferguson had agreed to sort out his peddler’s license with the Council. But when his crew set up again outside of Edward P. Yorke High School this morning around eight-thirty, special constables once again intervened to remove the trailer because of not having proper documentation. The Council’s traffic manager, Kevan Jenkins, now says the trailer is not properly licensed or insured and that it was improperly parked overnight. We have both sides of the story.

Paul Ferguson

Paul Ferguson, Vendor

“Wahn poor black man di try mek wah money, try mek wah living out yah. So tell me when the councilors and the mayor get on TV and talk about they are for poor people – they are not for poor people; they are for higher class and middle class people; they don’t give a [expletive] about poor people. And Paul Ferguson will stand up for what I believe in. I’m going by force; I’m not going easy. By force I’m going and that is a message I am sending to the mayor and all the councilors – Paul Ferguson not going so easy. I’ll be around for a long time. Serious. The Council has been charging me for peddler’s license from 2013 to now. This is the peddler’s license right here – from 2013, they charged me up to this date, 2017; I wasn’t selling chicken all that time. The receipt I just got yesterday so I’m just showing you they don’t even go into their archives and look for information; just because certain people called them they are trying to be vindictive.”

Kevan Jenkins

Kevan Jenkins, Traffic Manager, Belize City Council

“At this time Mr. Ferguson’s trailer is not licensed and not insured and it’s parked on a curve. However, just now he showed me a peddler’s license – I think that peddler’s license is from 2013 that he had before. What should have happened – now that he has new equipment and a new location that he wants to sell from, he should have applied to the Traffic Department in writing that he wants to set up a special location; I would have sent my traffic officers to check out location and see if the location is feasible for him to operate from; he didn’t do that. And so we are here at this time to ask him to come in the office and apply the proper way and see if we will grant him the location. While we were out here we realized that the trailer is not licensed, it’s not insured, it’s parked on a curve and we believe it is hazardous to the traffic flow.”

It was settled that Ferguson would not be moved and that he could conduct business as usual until this afternoon and then go to the Belize City Council and license and insure the trailer.

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